The Existing International Legal Framework on Enforced Disappearance

10.1163/ej.9789004161498.i-434.25

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Chapter Summary

Before the adoption of the 2007 International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance, only a few international instruments of normative character specifically dealt with the subject of enforced disappearance. The Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances actively participated in the elaboration of the 1992 Declaration and welcomed it as a milestone in the efforts to combat the practice of disappearance. The 1994 Interamerican Convention represents a significant step forward in international human rights law, especially because it provides for the first time in a binding instrument an internationally agreed definition of the offence and qualifies the systematic practice of disappearance as a crime against humanity. The 1998 Rome Statute allows for the prosecution of persons accused of enforced disappearances by the International Criminal Court.